Whitefaces overwhelm Frenship

Saturday

WOLFFORTH - There's still six games to go to determine whether Frenship's District 3-4A season will end up like last year when the Tigers struggled to make the playoffs.

But it sure started out like last year.

Hereford quarterback Ryan Martinez torched the Tigers for 342 passing yards and three touchdowns and rushed for another, and the Frenship offense couldn't get out of its own way in the red zone, allowing the Herd to open 3-4A play with a 26-7 win Friday night at Tiger Stadium.

"We've been playing hard but haven't been playing well," Hereford coach Don DeLozier said. "I think our kids closed that gap tonight. We just did what we do, and I can't say anything else to that.

"Ryan's done a lot of running, and this may be his best game throwing the ball this year. They played more people inside than they did outside ... and our offense is supposed to take advantage of what we're given, and he did a great job running the offense tonight."

The win gives the Herd (3-1, 1-0 in 3-4A) the early upper hand between two teams projected to finish 1-2 in the district. Martinez was the deciding factor.

He threw for two of his touchdowns in the second half, and all three went to Zack Lopez. Of Martinez's 18 completions, 15 went to either Lopez, who had nine catches for 133 yards, or Christian Garza, who had six for 150.

Martinez's ability to hit the short passes and downfield completions - he had six for 20 yards or more - and Frenship's inability defensively to figure out the Whitefaces made it a long night for the Tigers (3-1, 0-1) and an easy night for Martinez.

"We had two weeks to prepare for this, and we knew it would be the first step of our district-championship run," said Martinez, who was 18-of-26 with one early interception. "We knew their game plan was to try and contain me so we spread it out more instead of trying to hit them in the mouth every time. I think the previous games of me running a lot helped us get our receivers open more."

But it wasn't like Frenship didn't have its chances.

The Tigers got another solid night on the ground with 184 rushing yards, and quarterback Brandon Hanslik hit some big passes in the first half. But the Tigers' inability to finish drives proved to be their downfall.

Frenship's final drive of the first half and its first two drives of the third quarter each penetrated the Hereford 20-yard line, including twice getting inside the 10. But a pair of sacks by Hereford's Ezau Sanchez on the first two drives, a pair of incompletions and five plays where the Tigers went backward led to a missed field goal and two turnovers on downs to end the three drives.